NEATH FAIR: Stalls from 9am, rides from 6pm as the Great Fair opens for its 746th year

Seven hundred and forty-six years in, Neath’s Great Fair opens this morning: stalls on the streets from 9am, and the funfair firing up on Milland Road at 6pm tonight.

The street fair runs through Neath town centre until Saturday, 9am to 10pm each day, while the funfair keeps going a day longer, until Sunday evening.

Neath Port Talbot Council says traders will be selling clothing, crafts, accessories, homeware and mystery parcels, with hog roast, Mexican food, churros and brownies among the food stalls.

The funfair on Milland Road car park, run by the Showmen’s Guild, opens 6pm to 10pm tonight and Thursday, 4pm to 10pm on Friday, and midday to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The weather looks kind for opening day: the forecast has Wednesday dry with highs around 17C, Thursday the dampest-looking day of the run with a 40% chance of rain, and a fair, mild weekend for the funfair’s final days.

Drivers should plan around a closed town centre while the stalls are in place. The council has not published a 2026 road closure list on its fair page, but in previous years the fair streets, including Green Street, Queen Street, Angel Street and Square, Wind Street and Orchard Street, were shut from the Monday before, with High Street Car Park given over to traders.

A miniature fairground in the library on Saturday

The new attraction for 2026 comes on the fair’s final street day: a working miniature fairground at Neath Library, model rides with lights and moving parts the council says look almost identical to the real thing in photographs.

The Showmen’s Guild is backing it with a collection of fairground memorabilia, and the library’s exhibition on the fair’s 700-year history runs alongside it until Saturday.

746 Septembers, on the council’s count

The council calls the Great Fair one of the oldest chartered fairs in Wales and Europe, its charter generally dated to the 13th century, which is why the stalls return to the same streets in the second week of September every year.

It described the event in 2021 as the fourth largest chartered street trading fair in the UK, drawing traders from across the county, the region and Europe.

Announcing this year’s fair, Cllr Cen Phillips, the council’s cabinet member for nature, tourism and wellbeing, said: “We’re excited to welcome the return of the iconic Neath Great Fair for its 746th year. What makes this event so special is how the organisers can celebrate its tradition whilst also introducing innovative ways to entertain, such as this year’s new miniature fairground exhibition.”

The fair has run every September since its pandemic pause, having not taken place in 2020 or 2021.

Neath Great Fair 2026 at a glance: Street fair, today until Saturday 12 September, town centre, 9am to 10pm. Funfair, today until Sunday 13 September, Milland Road car park: Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to 10pm, Friday 4pm to 10pm, Saturday and Sunday 12pm to 8pm. Miniature fairground exhibition, Saturday, Neath Library. Fair history exhibition, now until Saturday, Neath Library.

The stalls are there until Saturday night, the rides a day longer. Neath has had 746 Septembers of practice; it knows how to throw this one.